


Astronauts

by f0rt1ss1m0



Series: Sing for Her [2]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, F/F, First Kiss, Fluff, French Kissing, Holding Hands, Kissing, Making Out, Oneshot, written entirely without a plan can you tell
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-27
Updated: 2016-05-27
Packaged: 2018-07-10 13:59:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6987862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/f0rt1ss1m0/pseuds/f0rt1ss1m0
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Peridot has no experience in writing a kissing scene — and she wants Amethyst to fix that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Astronauts

**Author's Note:**

> I'm writing this directly in the AO3 story creator just so I can keep myself accountable like this:  
> I will NOT turn this into angst.  
> I will NOT turn this into angst.  
> I will NOT turn this into angst.  
> I will NOT turn this into angst.  
> I will NOT turn this into angst.  
> Signed, Me

The TV was on, papers were everywhere, the computer was hot, and Peridot was buzzing.

She wasn't...entirely sure, actually, how long she had been up in the loft; she had long since misplaced the digitized "watch" purchased by Steven on the second month's canniversary. Earth time made no sense anyway. _Sixty_ minutes in an hour? _Seven_ days in a week? _Three hundred sixty five and one fourth_ days in a year? Since when did factors of ten lose their merit? Had Homeworld failed to magnetically stabilize this planet's pattern of revolution upon acquiring it? It would certainly explain the unpredictable meteorological patterns, the increasingly unequal diurnal cycles, and the new cold seeping into the poorly insulated barn.

As her thoughts glanced upon this, she shivered involuntarily and set her hands again on the warm keyboard. Obviously gems could not be affected negatively by most changes in heat; however, it was still a little hard to ignore. But the archaic computer had been on quite a while — to the point where she'd actually had to rewire the coolant system, hardly a challenge — and provided a source of heat and a soothing whir.

Peridot glanced away from the screen to the first packet on the desk's growing pile. So far, Figures 42-A through G had proven to be invaluable sources in the compilation of her document. She had found this "fan comic" several weeks ago and appreciated it so much that she had printed it out. It portrayed seven caricatures of Percy and Pierre, the first two of them in very close proximity and the rest in direct contact, at the lips nonetheless. Doing the thing they'd never done yet in canon. "Kissing." The censors would never allow it, reported one user in the Camp Pining Hearts forums, but there was still "fanfiction" and "fanart". The two things in which recently Peridot had begun indulging.

She appreciated especially the ones where Percy and Pierre kissed. The writers and artists always depicted it so close, so aesthetically pleasing that Peridot couldn't help but feel a little fluttery inside.

So, to satisfy herself, she had set off to write something of her own. Initially she had planned on an AU — wherein Pierre was a prodigious quartz fresh from battle and Percy was the meek pilot assigned to bring the victorious Pierre back to his base. However, such a complex plot was proving to be too advanced for readers, according to her reviews to chapter 1.

From ColorWarrior399: _This is a unique AU, but it's hard for me to read because of all the spelling errors. Also, maybe you should try setting up some context before just saying "And they kissed", some description perhaps. It'd also be nice to develop their relationship more. Maybe you should get a beta reader?_

From DarkHorseBlueSky: _i'm not rly sure what's going on but it's rly cool, love how your narration is super robotic to match how percy's like a robot and nice integration of mythology though idk if the quartz gods really used tasers_

From Guest: _upd8 soon_

In order: no but thank you, you don't know what you're talking about clod, and sure!

Peridot did, however, reconsider ColorWarrior399's offer of a beta reader because human spelling was awful. And as for the kiss...she hadn't really known _how_ to write it. Most other writers were very mysterious about the action as if they assumed their readers had had some prerequisite background in kissing. Well, of course they would, because most other fanfiction writers were most likely human, and it seemed to be a common custom to visit summer camps and find a romance to play out within a thirty-minute filmed timespan.

She referred to Figure C of the fan comic again and began to type what she saw. Lips pressed against the other's. Percy's eyes were half closed, and Pierre's were all the way. Percy's hands were in Pierre's hair. Yes, that was all good, but they were all visual clues, how could she express a clearly tactile-based gesture like that? Sighing, she fell back in the swivel chair and began to rub her eyes. This was it. She'd never be a fanfiction writer.

She sat up again — very quickly — when she heard a foot on the loft floor not a few paces away.

"Gah! Lazuli, haven't I — ah."

The accusation died quickly in her throat when she saw not Lazuli landing on the loft, but her favorite quartz hoisting herself up the ladder. "Yoooooooo..." Amethyst drawled, and waltzed leisurely to Peridot's side. This was much better than Lazuli, who was the embodiment of "all or nothing" and didn't understand the concept of _I will listen to you complain about Jasper except while I am in the Private Office with my Private Things._ Amethyst, however, was bearable.

Peridot felt a new pressure on her head as Amethyst leaned over and rested her arms quite indecently on Peridot's hair. Ah well, it was messy enough already. "Yo," Peridot repeated, shorter than Amethyst's. The longer ones didn't roll off her tongue as easily. "'Sup."

"Eh, just bored. What didn't'cha want Lazuli seeing again?"

"Er..." Now that she considered it in context, the Not-For-Lazuli content might also fall into the Not-For-Amethyst category as well. Even though she was chilly, Peridot felt her cheeks flush and meekly held up the printed fan comic. "I was...writing a...fffff...fanfiction. Based on this series of images."

The pressure left her head as Amethyst snatched up the packet — and suddenly also Peridot's hand. The little technician found herself flying towards the couch, sprawling across the cushions and Amethyst's body in the clumsy landing. Feeling very warm and tingly indeed, Peridot yelped and tried to sit up, but Amethyst pulled her back down to sit next to her. Her thigh pressed against Peridot's.

" _Dude,_ " Amethyst breathed out, her expression a mixture of surprise and pleasure all in one as she flipped through the fancomic. "This is...hot."

"Oh...ah, yes." Peridot had gotten slightly distracted by the pleasant sensation of their hands almost intertwining, with Amethyst's pinky finger brushing against her own. "It gives me some pleasure to view them, as well as to read logs of similar actions."

"So that's what you've been up here so long for," Amethyst murmured. Peridot frowned.

"What do you mean?"

"I haven't seen ya for, like, five days, you weren't even answering your phone. I thought you'd poofed yourself."

"Huh?" Five days? How had she lost track of time so bad? "Oh...ahhh...I'm sorry. If I, er, worried you."

Amethyst brushed back her hair, revealing both of her eyes as she bounced around on the couch to face Peridot and tucked her legs up on the couch. "Nah, it's cool."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I get it! Girl's gotta have her alone time. It's just how ya get by, you find somethin' you really like and indulge yourself in it to forget about other things. I'm guessing the Thunder Sisters went at it again?"

Peridot grimaced as she thought of the third added member to the Barn Squad, who had been kept deliberately separate from Lazuli until...well...five days ago. The healed and now morally neutral Jasper had dropped by in Greg's van to restock Peridot's soda stash (she appreciated the fizzy feel) which would have been fine if Lazuli had not been around.

Yup, it'd been the first day of barn sharing all over again.

"I'm guessing not," Amethyst scrunched up her face, mirroring Peridot's own expression, and Peridot nodded in response.

"They _suck._ Lazuli came back here, I dunno, twice ever since. I heard her smashing things with a water hand."

"You'd think it'd be Jasper doing the smashing."

"Surprisingly enough she's quite competent in redirecting her anger. For a jasper, at least."

"I don't wanna meet the other ones then." Amethyst gave a little laugh and flung the fan comic back to Peridot a little too casually. Peridot suspected that hadn't been the entire truth, but didn't inquire. If Amethyst didn't want to talk about quartz things, she wouldn't pry about quartz things. The mere existence of Jasper had probably rubbed it in enough.

"But I've just been here," shrugged Peridot instead. "With my...nerd stuff."

"With ya nerd stuff," Amethyst nodded. "So you got into fanfic, huh?"

Like every time, she met Peridot's eyes like Peridot was all that mattered; it was so revitalizing, and despite decency Peridot found herself quite willing to indulge the other gem. She cleared her throat. "Yes! I just posted the first chapter...ahh...a few days ago?"

"Really? Did people like it?" Amethyst transitioned from excited to mock angry in a second and pulled her hand away from Peridot's to punch her own palm. "Oho, they'd _better_ like it."

In spite of herself, Peridot laughed dryly. "They absolutely despised it," she wailed. "I don't know how to write a romance, everyone does it so different! I can't _spell!_ And I have no idea how to write a kiss! I've never taken part in one."

Frustrated, she shook her head and fell back against the couch cushion, squishing her already-messy hair. Amethyst practically cooed and leaned on her shoulder. Her hair tickled Peridot's skin. Quartzes were good sources of heat, Peridot decided.

"Aww, poor girl. See, the spellin' stuff, that's more Pearl's territory, but man, fanfic writers must be harsher than I remember. Back in the day, almost _none_ of them really knew what a kiss was like, you could do anything. Either that or you're just bad."

Peridot looked down at her in surprise. This was new — potentially very helpful — information. "You're familiar with kissing scenes?"

"Ehhh...yeahhh...?" Amethyst rubbed the back of her neck, sending another lock of soft hair tumbling down Peridot's chest. "Not really so much _scenes_ so much as...like...actually doing it?"

This information was even more helpful. Peridot sat up so fast she nearly flung Amethyst off the couch. "You kissed — oh, sorry!"

As Amethyst righted herself again, she laughed and pushed her hair away from her eyes. She was...quite the specimen. "Just a couple humans now and then, playing around. Conducting research."

"But you  _have_ kissed someone, right?"

"Eh. Yeah."

She said it so casually, with a little floof of her hair, and Peridot couldn't help but feel another blush come to her cheeks. "Amethyst!" Oh, she was getting so twitchy and...shaky. And she'd very nearly yelled.

"Amethyst," she repeated less loudly, steepling her fingers, "I've made up my mind. I have chosen you to instruct me in this Earth ritual, kissing."

Amethyst's perfect vision spheres went wide, shining with stars, and her mouth dropped open. Just before Peridot predicted she would reply, however, she recognized the distinctive flap of water wings and the _pat, pat_ of bare feet on the barn floor. Amethyst turned back to Peridot with a wide grin.

"Let's go," she whispered.

Amethyst held Peridot's hand as the two young gems jumped down from the loft, thoroughly surprising the Lazuli who had just entered the barn. "'Sup," they said in tandem, pointing finger guns. Lapis just rolled her eyes and continued past them.

Outside was, like inside, not exactly a pleasurable temperature. The sky was painted the rich pink-orange that Peridot had grown so close to. Sunset. The fresh organic smell of summer had long since faded into the crisp, fragrant tang of this season called "fall". The grass wasn't quite as vibrant of a green. That was slightly depressing, but it had an interesting new crunchy texture under her socks. As Amethyst pulled Peridot along, the wind came through and blew the quartz's lavender mane behind her like a true warrior's cape, except that a true warrior wouldn't glance over her shoulder with a smile and squeeze her hand gently. A warrior wouldn't break into giggles. A warrior wouldn't take her into a run as they passed the silo and came upon the peak of the hill in the full liquid light of a setting sun.

A warrior wouldn't guide her playfully down onto the grass, shapeshift a jacket with fuzz around the collar, and drape it over a simple Peridot's bare shoulders.

"That's how you start, Polkadot," Amethyst explained. Oh, their thighs were touching again, but Amethyst didn't move hers and Peridot didn't want to. She frowned in a question.

"How we start what?"

"Setting the scene. You gotta get somewhere private — public's okay too, but I dunno if Lapis wants us snoggin' where she'll be sittin'."

"What's 'snogging'?"

Amethyst got a devilish twinkle in her eye and she stuck up her nose in the air, adopting a terrible snooty accent not dissimilar from Yellow Diamond's. "Oh, just a _fancy_ term for the kissing ritual, dah-ling. Make sure to use it around Pearl, she'll love that."

Ooh, words with which to impress the Pearl. Yes, good. Peridot wondered if she should have brought Tape Recorder 2.0, or at least a notepad to write down all of these riveting points. Peridot clapped her hands together.

"Perfect! So now we begin snogging?"

Behind her hand, Amethyst snorted for some reason, then composed herself and shook her head. What a pity; Peridot had wanted to start now. The light of the sunset did accentuate her glossy purple lips just so. Like a painting. A perfect fan comic. "Generally," she corrected, "for romances with your levels of cheese, you'll wanna start slow. You get your private place to watch the sunset, just the right weather, and if it's cold, the bigger person gives their coat to the little one. Sometimes one person will do something like...this."

Slowly, just a bit clumsily, Peridot felt Amethyst's hand sneak around her back, pulling Peridot to lean against her. It was such an exquisite thing, Peridot thought, Amethyst's strong but soft arm across the small of Peridot's back, the husky guiding voice, the delicate scent of food and gasoline. Peridot sighed in pleasure and nestled her head on Amethyst's shoulder.

"Though I appreciate it, I don't understand how we begin kissing from this position," she commented.

"The process is kinda gradual," said Amethyst. "It's normally here that we'd have a romantic talk."

"Like what?"

One side of her mouth quirked up thoughtfully. "Do you really like me?" She began stroking Peridot's hair, pulling another involuntary sigh from the little renegade. How indecent. How wonderful.

"What kinda question's that? You're amazing, Amethyst."

"But do you _like_ like me," Amethyst pressed the question a little more. "Like — if you don't, that's okay too. But...ahaha, I dunno, I might just be insecure again about all this but I gotta know. Do you want me to kiss you because it's good research, or do you want me to kiss you because.. _.you_ want me to?"

Peridot hesitated. She would like to say the former, but the latter was also true. Despite her stature, Amethyst's appearance was ideal. A symmetrical face, squishy cheeks and nose and lips and hair that made her just want to touch it. Could the answer be both? "Are," she began the classic new peridot thing of answering all questions with questions, "are you asking if I am harboring romantic feelings towards you?"

She shrugged. "I wanna know how far to take this."

"Then why don't we find out," Peridot dared. The situation was making her too needy. She wanted this now, here. Careful not to drop Amethyst's jacket, Peridot shifted around again until she was facing Amethyst, one hand on the quartz's and the other hand moving behind her back. "Is this right?"

"Perfect," Amethyst smirked. "You sure?"

Peridot was all twitchy and jittery again. Technically all she wanted was to dive in, perhaps then the viridian blush on her cheeks wouldn't be quite so obvious, but she didn't want to mess up. Around Amethyst's back, her grip subconsciously tightened. Maybe she wouldn't mess up if she let Amethyst lead.

"Amethyst, I am one hundred percent positive. Kiss me."

The smirk turned into a full scale grin.

Camp Pining Hearts — what was that? Finding pleasure simply in watching moving pictures kiss? _This_ was where it was at, Peridot soon found; this was the kiss to end all kisses. Amethyst tilted her head up and it was all the invitation Peridot had needed to put her limited skills to work. Amethyst's lips, sweet and soft and glossy, adjusted under Peridot's chapped thin lips, staying quite still and pressing lightly until she relaxed and Amethyst guided her into something more. As Peridot observed, Amethyst's eyes closed almost instantly, so she did the same, and found the experience surprisingly more enjoyable that way. She was at Amethyst's mercy now, pliable to the whims and desires of her hungry open mouth, victim to the hand that released her own and pushed through Peridot's hair. Oh _stars._

The jacket had long since slipped down and vanished as Amethyst lost focus, but neither noticed.

To keep from falling, Peridot straddled Amethyst's hips and wrapped both arms behind Amethyst's back; Amethyst cupped both strong, gentle hands around her cheeks. The kiss came harder, different now. Peridot hadn't quite known what to do with her tongue at first, but quickly found that pushing the muscle into Amethyst's mouth stimulated several satisfying responses. Licking Amethyst's lips elicited a pleased hum, but going further drew out moans. Her body responded too; her back curved in and she pressed her chest — _oh_ _stars —_ against Peridot's with every movement of her tongue. Their teeth bumped a couple times, seemingly giving Amethyst an idea, and Peridot found moans slipping from her own mouth as Amethyst pulled her fangs across her upper, then lower lip. Saliva trailed back when they parted for air that they didn't need.

The kiss to end all kisses — no, this was just the beginning. The first thing that she saw when she opened her eyes was Amethyst's flawless, flushed face, staring back at her in awe.

"Holy smokes," they whispered together.

Dazed, both gems sat back down on the grass, breathing hard. Peridot could hardly believe what she'd just done but there she had it — she had forsaken her Homeworld for the Earth, Steven, TV, and kissing miniature quartzes. A new item for the list. She was still dizzy and when she looked at Amethyst she just got more so. A sweet, excited euphoria spilled over inside of her.

And she broke out into a spasm of giggles.

Impulsively she threw herself at Amethyst again and felt a hand slip behind the small of her back once more before Amethyst pressed a kiss to her cheek. "You're ridiculous," laughed Amethyst, kissing her over and over again all down her face, and Peridot didn't even want to tell her to stop. She could have this forever.

"Amethyst — oh my stars, Amethyst, I don't care," she began to hum as Amethyst's lips traced down her jaw, "you make me so _happy._ I do, I _like_ like you, I just — ! I love you, Amethyst. Have I told you that? And it's so _illogical_ and improbable and improper and I never want you to stop, and look at me now, I'm babbling nonsensically. Kiss me again."

Amethyst obliged and pulled her down, effectively silencing her save the occasional moan and sigh. The sun had fully retreated under the sea.

"But you got what you wanted, right?" she asked at last.

The gems slumped against each other, Amethyst's arm around Peridot and Peridot's head again on her shoulder. The sky was purple-blue, the air was cool, and Peridot was at peace. Closing her eyes, she snuggled into her partner's warmth.

"I doubt I'll ever have enough."

**Author's Note:**

> Okay reflection time:
> 
> 1.) Dyslexic Peridot is canon; we've all seen the shipping chart and "analasys"  
> 2.) Yes DarkHorseBlueSky is me  
> 3.) Next time, I'll back up my work (I lost half of this because the damn page reloaded without my permission)  
> 4.) I...I like the idea of Amethyst occasionally getting the "Jasper grin" and being more feral when she wants something.  
> 5.) Why do all of my first kiss scenes sound the same? Oh yeah. Because I use the same two characters every single time and have a very specific set of favorite headcanons.  
> 5 1/2.) (((also I am Peridot i have never been kissed)))  
> 6.) i can't ever end things.  
> 7.) I did not turn this into angst; however, dramabombs are inescapable.  
> 8.) The title is from Astronauts by Rachel Platten, the most adorable Amedot song ever.  
> 9.) As a result of this, Petri Dish may be shorter than expected.  
> 9 1/2.) Whatever.


End file.
